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Thursday, October 16, 2014

Ethiopia Shows Developing World How to Make a Green Economy Prosper

The GIZ,
German government-backed international enterprise for sustainable
development, Sustainable Land Management programme in northern Ethiopia.
The programme includes promoting the use of terracing, crop rotation
systems, improvement of pastureland and permanent green cover etc.
Courtesy: GIZ

ADDIS ABABA, Oct 16 2014 (IPS) -
Ethiopia has experienced its fair share of environmental damage and
degradation but nowadays it is increasingly setting an example on how to
combat climate change while also achieving economic growth. “It
is very well known by the international community that Ethiopia is one
of the front-runners of international climate policy, if not the leading
African country,” Fritz Jung, the representative of bilateral
development cooperation at the Addis Ababa German Embassy, tells IPS.This
Horn of Africa nation has learned more than most that one of the most
critical challenges facing developing countries is achieving economic
prosperity that is sustainable and counters climate change.According to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC),
“maximum and minimum temperatures over equatorial East Africa will rise
and … climate models show warming in all four seasons over Ethiopia,
which may result in more frequent heat waves.”In Africa, the primary concern is adapting to
the negative impacts of climate change. Though the report recognised
Ethiopia as one of the countries that have “adopted national climate
resilience strategies with a view to applying them across economic
sectors.”Along with China and India, Ethiopia provided a case
study for researchers conducting a year-long investigation into issues
such as macroeconomic policy and impacts; innovation, energy, finance
and cities; and agriculture, forests and land use.Ethiopia’s
Climate-Resilient Green Economy (CRGE), a strategy launched in 2011 to
achieve middle-income status by 2025 while developing a green economy,
“is proof of Ethiopia’s visionary engagement for combining
socio-economic development as well as environmental sustainability,”
Jung says.Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ),
a German government-backed international enterprise for sustainable
development, partnered with Ethiopian government organisations to tackle
environmental issues.One programme has been the Sustainable Land Management Programme (SLMP), launched in 2008.Northern
Ethiopia suffered significant soil erosion and degradation — with
farmers driven to cultivate the steepest slopes, suspending themselves
by ropes — before attempts were made to counter ecological destruction.Since
then approximately 250,000 hectares of degraded land in Ethiopia’s
highland areas of Amhara, Oromia and Tigray — in which over 50 percent
of Ethiopia’s 94 million people live — has been restored to
productivity.This has been achieved through promoting sustainable
land management practices such as the use of terracing, crop rotation
systems, and improvement of pastureland and permanent green cover,
benefiting more than 100,000 households.“SLMP with its holistic
approach increases water availability for agriculture and agricultural
productivity and thus contributes directly and indirectly to an
increased climate resilience of the rural population,” Johannes
Schoeneberger, head of GIZ’s involvement, tells IPS.One particular example of this, Schoeneberger says, was the
introduction of improved cooking stoves combined with newly established
wood lots at farmers’ homesteads reducing greenhouse gas emissions and
pressure on natural forests. It also reduced households’ bills for fuel
wood, he notes.Ethiopia has also recognised how its abundance of
waterways offer huge hydro-electric generation potential. Today, massive
public infrastructure works are attempting to harness this potential to
lift the country out of poverty.“[This] bold action in
anticipation of future gains is something countries need to focus on,”
Getahun Moges, director general of the Ethiopian Energy Authority, tells
IPS. “I believe every country has potential to build a green economy,
the issue is whether there’s enough political appetite for this against
short-term interests.”When it comes to countries working out
effective methods to enact, Ethiopia finds itself somewhat of an
authority on achieving sustainability due to past experiences.“Ethiopians
can give answers whereas often in industrialised countries people
aren’t sure what to do,” Yvo de Boer, director general of Global Green Growth Institute,
an international organisation focused on economic growth and
environmental sustainability, tells IPS. “Ethiopians should be asked.”The result of that research was a report called the New Climate Economy (NCE) released last month in Addis Ababa and New York.NCE
is the flagship project of the Global Commission on the Economy and
Climate, established in 2013 — Ethiopia was one of seven founding
members, and the Ethiopian Development Research Institute participated
in the global partnership of leading institutes informing the NCE — to
examine whether lasting economic growth while also tackling the risks of
climate change is achievable.And the NCE has concluded that both goals are possible.“The
notion that economic prosperity is inconsistent with combating climate
change has been shown to be a false one that doesn’t hold,” Helen
Mountford, director of economics at Washington-based World Resources Institute and future global programme director of the New Climate Economy, tells IPS. “It’s an old-fashioned idea.”This
turnaround has been made possible by structural and technological
changes unfolding in the global economy, and by opportunities for
greater economic efficiency, according to the NCE.By focusing on
cities, land use and renewable and low-carbon energy sources, while
increasing resource efficiency, investing in infrastructure and
stimulating innovation, it is claimed a wider economy and better
environment are achievable for countries at all levels of development.Although Ethiopia is by no means out of the woods yet.“Climate
change together with other challenges like demographic growth and
competing land use plans continue to threaten the great natural resource
base and biodiversity of the country,” Jung says.But Ethiopia appears to have heeded past problems and chosen to follow a different, and more sustainable, path.And according to those behind the NCE there is reason for optimism globally on how to achieve a more sustainable future.They
hope that the NCE’s findings will encourage future agreement and
cooperation when nations discuss and implement international climate
change policies, allowing the ghosts of the Kyoto Protocol and the
Copenhagen Accord — previous efforts judged ineffective — to be laid to
rest.But others, such as environmental economist Gunnar Köhlin, director of Sweden-based Environment for Development Initiative, point out that previous sustainability initiatives have struggled to achieve tangible results, especially in Africa.“Sub-Saharan
Africa has still not invested fully in a mature energy generation and
distribution system,” Köhlin tells IPS. “There are therefore still many
choices to be made in supplying households with energy that it both not
aggravating climate change and at the same time is resilient to the
impacts of climate change.”In light of this and the failure of
previous projects, Köhlin suggests, the NCE begs the question: What will
be different this time?“In the last 10 to 15 years new policy
developments have started to take hold,” Mountford says. “Yes, there
have been failures, but there have been many successes and so we have
taken stock of these — now we are at a tipping point, with the lessons
learned from these recent experiences and significant technological
innovations giving us new opportunities.”The true test of the
NCE’s merit will come at the next major convention on climate change due
in Paris in 2015, when world leaders will wrestle with, and attempt to
agree on, international strategy.“Let us hope Paris might bring
about historic decisions and agreements, and this report might
contribute to that end,” Moges says.http://www.ipsnews.net